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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A 27-year-old Fredericton man is going to jail for four and a half years on drug charges.Troy Morris Albert pled guilty to all charges back in June.The charges include conspiracy to traffic cocaine and posession for the purpose of trafficking in cocaine and marihuana.Albert can't possess firearms for a period of 10 years after his release from jail andhe must provide a DNA sample. The charges stem from Operation Jellybean, a two year joint investigation by the city police and RCMP in Fredericton and Saint John drug units.

Just in time for Christmas.....another way for someone to try and steal your hard earned money. Pin Pad Theft has hit two stores in Saint John. The fraud unit says how it works is the thief or thieves usually show up at closing time to remove a pin pad and replace it with another. This pad doesn't work and acts as a prop until they get the original back. They then install hardware in the real pad, return it and then come back and steal it again at the end of the day to collect the pin numbers.

City Police ask all stores to treat their pin pads the same as cash and know your pin pad serial number.

Public Health has adjusted the hours of the clinics today and tomorrow because of the coming storm.

The clinic underway at Exhibition Park will only run until 7pm tonight.Another clinic at the Royal Canadian Legion in St. Stephen will wrap up at 6pm this evening.Tomorrow's clinic in Deer Island at the Lord's Cove Church of Christ will now run from Noon to 8pm.For an updated list of clinics, go to www.gnb.ca/flu or call 1-800-580-0038

[Snow Falling on King Street]Snow, high winds and rain are all expected with the latest blast of winter set to arrive this afternoon. Keeping a close watch on the track of the system is the City Works Department. Kevin Rice is the Deputy Commissioner of Municipal Operations and tells CHSJ News, they are happy with how it's winter management plan worked over the weekend.

Rice adds they are currently going over all the gear and meeting with managers to go over what the game plan is.

Also ready for what-ever the storm might bring is Saint John Energy. President Eric Marr tells CHSJ News, they do a lot of work in the fall to try and make sure winter storms don't impact it's customers. Marr adds last weekend's storm did produce a few scattered outages for Saint John Energy due to the wet heavy snow snapping transmission lines.

NB Power Officials also tell us they have people watching the track of the storm and are ready to respond to any problem areas.

There is sure to be some frustration boiling over at the Saint John Airport through-out the day with a storm brewing. Flights in and out of the facility are sure to be grounded with the snow and high winds. President and CEO Bernie Leblanc tells CHSJ News, maintenance crews do a great job trying to keep traffic moving.

Leblanc reminds anyone due to catch a flight or has someone arriving at the airport, to call ahead at 696-0200 or punch up their website at www.sjairport.ca which shows arrivals and departures on a real time basis.

Now that you've reset all the clocks in your home, people want to know why there was no advance notice of a power outage for a lrge area of Greater Saint John last night? NB Power spokes-person Heather McLean tells CHSJ News, an emergency situation popped up during a routine inspection of a transmission line.

McLean adds the repair last night had nothing to do with the huge outage two weeks ago which saw close to 16,000 people in the same area's knocked off the grid for over ten hours.

An alleged assualt is being investigated by Hampton RCMP following reports of an alleged assault on a 12 year old boy by a 48 year old man in Willow Grove. Corporal Pat Cole tells CHSJ News, they are very early into the investigation which has been launched following a third party complaint. Sussex RCMP tell us they arrested two teenagers after a camp in the Mechanic Settlement area was broken into. Someone living near the camp noticed two young people running from the area.

A 16 and 17 year old boy were picked up by officers a short time later and no word on charges. Officers also tell us a counterfeit twenty dollar bill was found in a large deposit from a local business.

The Saint John Seadogs are still the number two ranked junior team in the country despite a twenty game winning streak. The latest numbers are in and the Windsor Spitfires still hold down the top spot with a record of 25-3-oh and 4. The Seadogs are sporting a record of 28-4 and 1.

This is the tenth week the Dogs have made it into the rankings and the 13th week for Windsor. The other Q-League teams in the rankings are Victoriaville at number seven, Drummondville is number nine and Quebec rounds out the top ten.

Opposition attacks on the proposed sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec are getting personal. Former Energy Minister Jennot Volpe compares the Premier to a child, accusing him of not understanding the significance of selling off NB Power's major assets. Provincial Energy Minister Jack Keir says it's easy to fear monger.

The problem, according to Keir, is what to do about NB Power's massive multi billion dollar debt.

The former conservative Finance Minister says something needs to be done regarding the Graham government spending because they're going to bankrupt the province. Jeannott Volpe tells CHSJ News, the reckless spending is going to result in the credit rating for the province to be downsized.

Volpe adds after looking at the recently tabled provincial budget, it appears there is going to have to be some major changes, and no matter what political party is in power next year, they have one major mess to clean up.

More details continue to be uncovered in the death of 16-year old Hilary Bonnell. A 29-year old Burnt Church man has been charged with first degree murder in the death of the teenager from the same community. Her body was found buried in a remote wooded area commonly known as the old Tracadie Military Training Area last month. She had been missing since September 5th.

The murder charge was laid yesterday in Miramichi Provincial Court against Curtis Bonnell. RCMP now believe Curtis Bonnell acted alone in the death of Hilary Bonnell.

Last month was a good one for new housing starts in the greater Saint John area -- the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing shows 54-new units started in November -- a 15-percent increase over the same month a year ago but year to date figures aren't as rosey -- the federal housing agency reports a 20-percent drop in housing starts between January and November compared to the same period last year.

Moncton's housing starts so far this year are off 33-percent against the 11-month period in '08 while Fredericton starts are up six percent in the same period compared to a year ago.